Adva Center

The Adva Center publishes a report on social and economic dynamics annually called "Israel: A Social Report".[2] The report presents data in the areas of economic growth, investments, wages, primary and higher education, health care and retirement income. In December 2011, the Adva Center released an updated report by Dr. Shlomo Swirski and Etty Konor-Attias following a summer of unprecedented social justice protests in which almost all the issues raised by Adva over the years were brought into focus. The high level of inequality in Israeli society became a frequent topic of discussion in the Israeli media. The size, income and expenditures of Israel's middle class—first pointed out in an Adva Center report and updated annually—also became the subject of many media items and a concern in the corridors of power.

A chapter of the annual Social Report focuses on health care. In the 2011 Social Report,[2] this chapter shows that the gap continued to widen in 2010 between the desirable and actual funding levels for the basket of health services provided by the health maintenance organizations. The burden of out-of-pocket payments for health services and for private health insurance policies doubled over the last decade. The Adva Center works closely with Physicians for Human Rights and with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, among other organizations, on the public health issue.

The annual "Labor Report"[3] monitors labor market developments in Israel, including employees' and employers' share of the national income, salary trends and fringe benefits in different sectors of the economy, high and low salaried persons by gender and ethnic group, the kinds of new jobs being created, unemployment rates and more. Taking their cue from these reports, business sections of print and internet papers have begun to write about the high management fees of retirement savings plans.

The Adva Center runs workshops to educate workers on the importance of retirement savings and on the benefits and disadvantages of various alternative plans. It also lobbies officials and the media to advocate for improvements in the retirement savings system. In 2010 it became mandatory for all employed persons in Israel to contribute to retirement savings, as implemented through the payroll system. Retirement savings of between 5% and 7% of gross wage are subtracted from the monthly salary of employees and transferred to their retirement savings accounts. Employers are also mandated to contribute to these accounts at the rate of 6%-13% of gross salary. The retirement savings accounts are owned and managed by insurance companies and investment houses. Management fees are for these accounts are extremely high, eroding as much as 30% of a person's savings. Agents at insurance companies and banks have also been found to aggressively offer advice - for additional fees - which put employees at a loss. Additionally, investment committees without any employee representation place most of the monies in the highly volatile capital market, with no guaranteed minimum annual return.

Adva has produced a series of policy papers on education reform. Most recently, the August 2011 paper titled "Education Reform: Making Education Work for All Children"[4] argues that the current functioning of the Israeli school system perpetrates inequality and poor achievements among most schoolchildren in a multigenerational trend. The analysis is based on the belief that all Israeli schoolchildren are capable of attaining normative achievements, and that the school system can be changed to enable them to do so. Main tenets of the proposed reform include:

1. Eliminating tracks, or groupings by ability, in all public school classes.
2. Providing support systems in each school for students needing assistance.
3. Ending the suspension and expulsion of students in any way.
4. Teaching Israel's full core curriculum in every school and reaching normative achievement in the core subjects.
5. Fostering a school environment that is open to the historical and cultural narrative of the local community, its language and music, the work world of the parents, the religious patterns of the community, and the norms and mores of its interpersonal and social behavior. This includes revising history and literature courses so that all students can identify themselves, their families, and their communities on the map of Israel – present, past, and future.

The Center releases a semi-annual report called "The Costs of Occupation". The publication provides data on the relationship between the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Israel's economic growth, its budget, its social development, its vision, its international standing, its army, societal divisions, and its future as a Jewish state. The report has received public attention since it was first published in 2006, prompting other researchers to examine the same phenomenon. The latest report,[5] released in May 2012 and attempts to demonstrate that:

• The Israeli economy is subject to double jeopardy: Israel needs to deal not only with crises stemming from global developments but also with those caused by the conflict. As a result, during the last decade (2001-2011), Israel's economic growth per capita grew more slowly than that of the countries of East Asia and Eastern Europe, and at a rate similar to that of Western countries. The problem is that in order to reach parity with Western countries, Israel needs to grow at a rate similar to those of the emerging economies of Asia and Eastern Europe.
• Due to the potential for instability, Israel's credit rating is low in comparison with the countries it would like to emulate.
• Hostilities cost money: between 1989 and 2011, the Ministry of Defense received budget increments totaling NIS 48 billion (2010 prices) earmarked for the conflict with the Palestinians.
• Budgets go for guns, not butter: During most of the past decade, the per capita budget for defense grew more (and was cut less) than the per capita budget for social services.
• The social protests of the summer of 2011 did not change Israel's priorities: The Trajtenberg Committee recommended instituting free education from the age of three, to be financed by a NIS 2.5 billion cut in the defense budget. However, the defense budget was not reduced but rather increased, and the funding is now slated to come from across-the-board budget cuts in the social service ministries.
• Social services in the settlements are more generously funded than those in Israel proper: In 2009, central government subsidies for social services in the settlements averaged NIS 2,264 per capita, compared with NIS 1,859 per capita in Arab localities and NIS 1,719 per capita in Jewish development towns. The data was later reviewed by experts and found to be inaccurate and misleading.[6]